Quote:
Originally Posted by psullivan
Vukie's recollection of the Gary Scott tragedy brings up for me, a real irony. I was at Knoxville the very next Saturday night program after Gary died -- Bob Trostle - who had great influence at that time - had told Ralph Capitani that if the wings didn't come on, he for one would not come back. So when that Saturday rolled around and the wing cars came out for hot laps - several long time fans just got up and left in disgust. Now, while the worm is turning just a bit, if it isn't winged sprint cars at Knoxville on Saturday night the regular crowd isn't all that interested.
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I'm all for non-wing stuff, but from what I know of that time period at Knoxville going to the wings was probably the right move. If you've heard any of the details of Scott's wreck or the Darryl Dawley / Roger Larson double fatal, they were not pretty to see. I think in Dave's first book there's a chapter in there about Trostle and he states he'd seen 10 guys killed at Knoxville in a something like a 15- or 20-year span.
With today's safety improvements, I reckon things might be a lot better now if they took the wings off on a regular basis, but back then Knoxville was a widowmaker even worse than it is now.